MC2301 amplifiers - Tube rolling 12AT7's

[W9TR]

Awesome. I’m looking forward to your impressions once the tubes have a few hours on them. I’d give them at least 20 hours, maybe more. My experience is that thing still change after that, but only a little.

These tubes are vey rugged. I just put them in a plastic bag and mark the date I pulled them and the hours on them. The bag goes in a banker’s box where I keep all my tubes.

[Timobi]

Thx Tom.

I usually don't like to listen to anything when its just turned on BUT.... Got to say, these Siemens produce a ton of detail. Not edgy. There was one track I played that I am very familiar with that was a bit on the sizzle and edge side of things. But what surprised me was the layering of sound. I heard 3 Dimensional sounds that were masked or just not present.

So that kind of makes me think that the Demo amps I bought probably had more than 40 hours on them. I've had them for just over a year or so.

If you guys like James Arthur? There's an Acoustic version of "Can I Be Him" live. His voice was absolutely dead center and alive. Was almost scary. Its on Tidal & Qobuz. It's really an impressive song that makes it easy to critique these tubes or really other gear too.

I'm sure this presence will tone down a bit but color me impressed!

Is there any need to leave the amps powered on all day? Does that do any break in to just be on? Don't want to play music as I don't want to waste panel life on my Martin Logans. But I left it on all night and it gets hot in there. So I know it's at least doing something.

Thx again to you Tom & to Craig here for helping me.

[W9TR]

They just have to be on. I don’t do anything special - I just play music during the break in period.

[rob725]

Not being an experienced "roller," it was quite a relief after replacing 28 tubes, that the amps actually came on normally. it already sounds good, maybe because the tubes were burned-in, so if the SQ improves further, I will be on the moon.

[Ventoux]

Ha Ha - Kinda related
I remember about 10 years ago when I built my first computer (Built 5-6 since). I was alone in my garage at around 1am on a Saturday night - ready to power on the system that I built from scratch - wondering if I had the wiring, motherboard, PSU, GPU all installed properly - holding a fire extinguisher (just in case) That system was my 1st HTPC that ran 24-7 for 10 yrs. A month later I built a second (Server). Last year my son and I built a really great liquid cooled gaming rig for him. (No fire extinguisher needed)

Rolling is no different - once you know how to pedal & keep from falling over - it's very rewarding. I get more nervous dropping my 3K+ Kiseki cart onto a Mofi One-Step pressing after several cocktails these days.
That can be a challenge.

[rob725]

I hear you on the cart! Hmm, fire extinguisher, shoulda thought of that.

[crwilli]

I always have a halotron fire extinguisher handy in my room.

[Badwithpeople]

Hello,

Apologies for going off topic, but this at least deals with the 2301s. I am looking at buying a used pair to go with my C1100. I would like to run 12v trigger cables to handle remote on/off. Does anyone know if I have to use mono 1/8" cables only, or will stereo work as well. I read somewhere that if you use stereo where the trigger is not designed for it it could damage your system. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks and stay safe.

[crwilli]

Pretty sure I have always used stereo cables from monoprice on my McAmps.

I did read that Classe amps need mono cables.

[RaceCarDriver]

1/8 stereo is what you want. 1 channel is the trigger to turn on/off, the other channel is to turn meter lights on/off.

Mono won’t damage anything, you just won’t get meter control.